There’s an interesting IoT write-up, here – the kind of news profile RCR used to do much more of – about Danish IoT provider Onomondo, which has a €100m “war chest” and an agenda to turn IoT from a SIM product into a software-defined infrastructure layer. Sounds familiar. Because it is the same discipline / logic-shift in the MNO market, and not just the reserve of a handful of progressives in the MVNO market – about programmability and dynamism, and the ability to spin-up high-end on-demand connectivity services. There’s good insight in there, too, about other cross-over features, common to the whole connectivity play: about SIM provisioning (SGP.32/eUICC), machine networks (private 5G), robot automation (physical AI).
But the best liner notes, maybe, are from the latest entry in RCR’s AI-RAN discography – as set down during Intelligent RAN Forum last week, and serialised in these pages since. Dell’Oro’s Stefan Pongratz was fairly blunt: the post-5G correction is over, but the RAN market is still expected to be broadly flat through 2030. AI RAN, cloud RAN, massive MIMO, and eventually 6G can all grow within that envelope without materially expanding it. The exception is private wireless, where enterprises bring genuinely new capital into the market (and for which OCUDU has new funding for factory demos, btw). Which makes the practical AI-RAN work now happening with operators – Orange, Optus, SK Telecom, as recorded here – more interesting than any of the grander claims about AI-RAN, or future telecoms.
There is a useful distinction here. AI for RAN can make existing networks cheaper, more efficient and easier to operate. RAN for AI is the much bigger bet: that AI agents, machines, and new traffic patterns eventually create enough demand to justify more capacity, spectrum and infrastructure. The first is already happening; but the second, still being sized up and sketched out, is the grand wager for the telecoms industry. As we know, and as we have written.
James Blackman
Executive Editor
RCR Wireless News
RCR Top Stories
Growth pockets: RAN revenue will remain flat through 2030, says Dell’Oro. Growth will be concentrated in AI RAN, massive MIMO, and cloud RAN, while private 5G adds new enterprise RAN spending, and 6G remains uncertain.
IoT war chest: Onomondo is getting a new owner and €100m in fresh funding as it pitches integrated global infrastructure, rather than just airtime – as the platform for IoT sensing to support physical AI sense-making.
AI venture fund: Ciena is launching a $200m corporate venture fund to gain earlier visibility into emerging AI networking technologies and complement its R&D, partnerships, and acquisition strategy.
RFID tracking: RFID devices are moving inventory tracking beyond dedicated scanning rounds, allowing workers to update stock while improving accuracy, productivity and cost efficiency across retail, logistics and other industries.
Idle GPU losses: Expensive GPUs are being left idle as the AI buildout runs into a shortage of powered data-center space. Demand for powered sites with megawatt capacity and fiber is through the roof. As discussed at Yotta.
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Beyond the Headlines
Supercycle fever: AT&T has signed a $3bn fiber supply deal with Corning, adding to a string of major commitments as AI data-center construction tightens optical supply and telcos bulk up their networks.
Snapdragon takes: Persistent context, sensory wearables, and heterogeneous software will connect endpoints – per Qualcomm’s diversification strategy. Oh, and in five hours of keynotes at Snapdragon Summit, 6G was referenced… twice.
AI-RAN risks: Don’t repeat your 5G mistakes with AI-RAN, SK Telecom tells its fellow telcos – while Optus considers how they should re-architect their infrastructure as “social networks for agents”.
Massive MU-MIMO: SRG has run the first independent test of 5G massive and multi-user MIMO in FDD spectrum across cells in Verizon’s network in Minnesota, with Ericsson as vendor. It found performance gains, incuding enhanced uplink.
Open AI RAN: Rakuten Mobile is using its open RAN foundation to advance AI-native automation, improve energy efficiency, and bring AI-RAN inference closer to the network edge. Report from Intelligent Ran Forum.
What We're Reading
Bell taps Cisco: Bell and Cisco are working on sovereign AI infra in Canada, combining Bell’s data centers, power, cooling, and connectivity with Cisco’s AI, security, and management tech to develop modular local infrastructure.
$6tn revenue gap: The AI industry needs to make $6tn in annual revenue to sustain its buildout, pegged at $1.5tn annually by 2031. Bain & Co suggests with $4.2tn needs to come from new markets.
OCUDU funding: Funding for open-source private 5G demos in manufacturing and stadiums is open, courtesy of OCUDU – which is targeting vendor-neutral networks spanning networks, machine vision, public safety, and crowd analytics.
Under attack: Half (46%) of industrial firms experienced a cyber incident in the past year, says Rockwell Automation – despite 90% expressing confidence in containing attacks. Gaps between investment and readiness – it seems.
Community resilience: VodafoneThree has a community resilience scheme with Santander to prepare communities for emergencies and improve coordination between businesses, charities and public services.
